“Its not everyday that you come across a great business. Let alone a great business with a great team,” said Omer Sajid, Founder & CEO of EXA. “We look forward to combining Valicom’s deep industry expertise with EXA’s best practices and software specialists to provide Valicom’s customers with the best products and services.”
Here at Valicom, we take pride in our customers and their continued support and satisfaction. Our team of equipped TEM experts thrive on the feedback from our customers. Over the years, we have used our client satisfaction survey to really hear and learn from our customers. Their criticism, good or bad, is an opportunity for us to grow. Our survey is based on 8 specific categories:
In order for digital networking to reach its full potential, the technology requires continuous upgrades in terms of capacity and speed. The global pandemic has caused everyone to rethink the requirements of this resource. With more people working at home, studying at home, and keeping themselves entertained remotely, existing systems were stretched to their limits. While 5G infrastructure promises to make high-speed internet a given for half the world, operators will still have to find new innovations to meet the ever-increasing demands on cyberspace.
According to the 2021 Broadband Pricing Index Report from US Telecom, prices are trending downward for American broadband services when compared with 2020 rates. This includes popular tiers, which have decreased by 7.5% this year. Downward price pressure has been a fixture of the industry since 2015. Therefore, in 2021, despite surging demand, the price of broadband fell more than 9% when adjusted for inflation. This means more value at a cheaper price for viewers.
As the industry focuses on the federal target of closing the digital divide, prices will likely remain low. Let’s take a look at what this might mean for underserved users and the industry as a whole.
With 5G networks delivering faster download speeds and low latency, the industry may soon see new applications and services that take advantage of the greater bandwidth. However, right now, carriers are struggling to find enough people to sell the services and build new networks.
Major players such as T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T are launching 5G into as many markets as possible as quickly as possible. The question is, will they be able to muster enough telecom workers to deliver on widely publicized predictions about the sea-level changes in the works.
Let’s say you have your cell phone on the countertop and share a pizza with a friend. You begin talking about local Italian restaurants and wonder which one has the best pasta. In the coming days, you notice that your phone starts displaying ads for delicious Italian cuisine in your area. Have manufacturers turned your phone into spy equipment for marketers?
It all depends on how you look at it. Even if we say yes, it’s probably not in the way you envision. You may be confessing your purchasing desires to your smart devices without realizing it. You’re probably feeding your phone information in the form of Google searches.
Reliance on remote technology saw many companies through the global shutdown during the pandemic. The crisis pushed security teams to quickly find protective measures and limit exposure due to hundreds or thousands of employees accessing company networks remotely.
At the same time, IT resources were making heroic efforts to protect and support their businesses, hackers and other bad actors exploited gaps and stepped up the theft of individual and company information.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the Colonial Pipeline hack. We’ll start with a discussion of what happened and its wider implications for digital transformation in the utilities industry.
We have all seen the lasting effects of the pandemic on jobs in the US. Purchasing departments face interesting challenges as we move through 2021. Technology has come a long way and is aiding the retirement of baby boomers and high unemployment rates.
It’s easy for people to lose track of their belongings. This might include car keys, wallets, umbrellas, and mobile devices. For personal devices, this can be a headache for individuals. When a mobile device belongs to your organization, it remains connected to your network and produces financial and security risks to the company.
Learn how you can mitigate this security risk with endpoint management tools.
While the economy has begun to open up post-COVID-19, many IT departments are being downsized. This trend may continue to affect technology budgets for the foreseeable future.
Technology workers are used to constant change, from taking on new projects to learning new skills to adapting to new innovations. However, a shrinking talent pool brings its own challenges. Often, IT departments are the first hit when it comes to belt-tightening measures. So, you learn to do more with less.
Telecom Expense Management (TEM) tools can help your organization run more efficiently. You may even find more room in the budget by resolving billing errors or recycling or retiring used devices such as laptops, tablets, and phones. First, you have to identify these opportunities, and it makes sense to invest in the technology that will get you there.
Are you ready to immediately save up to 10% on tracking, hosting, and paying your utility bills? Valicom offers solutions that allow you to manage facility expenses virtually. We coordinate, pay, and report expenses for 90+ service types.
So, let us worry about keeping the lights on and your facility running while making your utility process more efficient. Whether you use water, electricity, propane, natural gas, waste management, or other services, our technology can handle the details.
There are many challenges when it comes to keeping track of data inventory, telephone lines, and network, wireless and mobility assets. With the right telecom inventory management system, you can track, budget, and utilize or decommission assets effortlessly. Understanding the key challenges in telecommunications inventory management can help you streamline your telecommunications equipment and services.
Valicom provides inventory management services for telephones, fiber optics, microwave communication equipment, Wi-Fi, telephone lines, and internet services. With the right tools, you can stick to your telecom budget and ensure accurate monthly billing for everything from mobile devices to telephone lines.
Global organizations rely on telecom inventory to connect different office locations, suppliers, customers, and remote employees seamlessly. It’s important to have one central location to store telecom inventory, usage, and other relevant factors. Managing telecom inventory is paramount to the success of your organization, but it’s far from simple. Here are five key challenges to address when considering inventory management solutions.
We are very grateful for our amazing clients, those who have been with us from the start, as well as those who are newer to the team of technology expense management superheroes! When it comes to customer care, consistency is key to ultimate client satisfaction. Amidst a dramatic shift in our economy today, relationships and service are differentiators to preserve important relationships.
No matter how big or small your company is, you can benefit from hiring a third-party vendor to oversee your telecom expense management. Few companies have the resources to do a deep dive on their telecom invoices every month. However, with the right partner, you can automate this process and send notifications to your team if discrepancies arise. Auditing and invoice management is just part of what an effective partner has to offer.
Learn more about the critical services every telecom management provider, such as Valicom, should offer. Then, you can spend your time concentrating on business opportunities rather than chasing down telecom discrepancies and overcharges.
Negotiating a telecom contract takes a certain delicacy if you want to get the best deal without compromising your service. Although companies can take advantage of a competitive telecom market, it’s important to read the fine print on contract clauses and other factors that influence price and quality. On the other hand, a well-negotiated contract clearly states your services and expectations with unambiguous pricing models.
So, how do you come up with an agreement with your provider that works for you? With the right research and a little guidance, you can negotiate beneficial terms.
Here are seven tips to help your company get the service you need at a price you can afford:
According to predictions from IBM, edge vendors will take five points of market share off cloud growth in 2021. Due in part to the pandemic, cloud revenue exceeded all expectations in 2020. However, edge computing may continue to slow down the cloud’s rising star. Let’s take a look at one of the top tech trends emerging from this cool new technology.
Organizations use cloud computing to process stored data. Edge computing, by contrast, gives companies access to data in real-time. Real-time may be a relative term since latency continues to be a challenge that edge computing developers contend with. In remote areas, edge computing is a bonus because there is limited or no centralized repository for connectivity.
At a high level, there are three types of audits: internal, external, and IRS. Of course, you have no control over when the IRS comes around, but the right mix of internal and external checks can help you keep your costs under constant scrutiny while keeping your books in order — which can’t hurt if Uncle Sam does decide to take a dive into your telecom records.
Let’s take a look at internal and external audits, which you can control and use to monitor your telecom spend.
Our Annual Celebration looked a little different for Valicom this year. Instead of meeting at one of our favorite local restaurants, The Great Dane, or meeting for a night at The Comedy Club, we gathered at our computer screens, everyone to their own. Don’t worry, this isn’t the start of a sad story, I promise! It’s the start of one filled with gratitude.
The Telecom Expense Management Market, estimated at $1.45 billion in 2019, may reach $1.89 billion by 2027. That represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.65%. Another study, adjusted for the impact of COVID-19, projects a CAGR of 14.5% through 2025.
Telecom Expense Management has become an essential part of the tech stack at companies of all sizes and across most industries. Two transformative trends mostly drive this:
Increased need for efficient TEM practices
Expansion of business telecom infrastructures
If you need assistance with your telecom expense management, contact the experts at Valicom to tailor a solution for your company.
Backscatter networking has been named one of the top three trends of the future by CIO Review. This technology provides a nearly limitless network lifetime for IoT devices that currently run on finite batteries. A backscatter network transmits data using very little power. It targets small networked equipment and uses wireless pulses for power. Backscatter networking works well in areas saturated with wireless signals and can power simple IoT devices in smart homes and offices.
If your telecom and technology management systems are outdated, you are wasting time and money. One of the biggest wastes is that in managing everything the old-school way, in spreadsheets or desktop software. Follow along as we uncover why it is critical for complex telecom environments to manage their infrastructure, contracts, and invoices in an intuitive cloud-based solution instead of tedious, error-prone, and heavy updates of your outdated solutions.